Twisted Tail
Twisted Tail is the 3rd ''Wishbone'' episode. It was aired on October 10, 1995. Plot Wishbone stares into his food bowl to find it empty, and demands to know where the food is. Although he tries to keep his mind off food, he gives in and tries to find food, only to find ''Oliver Twist'', an 1830s English novel written by Charles Dickens. In the story, Oliver works in a workhouse with other boys. The workhouse is in poor condition, and the food is disgusting. Oliver finally decides enough is enough, and asks for more food. Because this is "unthinkable", he ends up thrown out of the workhouse forever. Back in the present, Wishbone greets Joe, David, and Sam, and notices an unfamiliar kid with them: Max, a kid who had just moved to town. Wishbone is initially suspicious of Max, but soon becomes friends with him. Joe tells Wishbone that while in P.E., he and his group beat Damont's team at a basketball game. Joe explains that he wasn't nervous, even when Sam brings up Sarah Johnson, a girl who Joe supposedly likes. When he demonstrates a move that he accomplished to finish the game, he throws the ball, only for Ellen to catch it. Joe introduces Max to Ellen, and Max wonders if Ellen is a basketball player too, to which Ellen responds that she isn't, but knows it well. As David and Sam help Ellen with the groceries, Joe shows Max his father's merchandise, from a newspaper photograph of him standing with Reggie Heard to a basketball card autographed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. When Max asks if his father taught him how to play basketball, Joe regrets that he didn't because he died from a blood disease when Joe was 6. At lunch, everyone is surprised at how much food Max can eat, and he feeds Wishbone some of his sandwich. The doorbell rings, and Ellen opens the door to reveal a distressed Wanda holding a plastic flamingo. She tells Ellen that one of her flamingoes was stolen earlier. As Wishbone examines the flamingo, Wanda tells Ellen that she has notified the police, and they think it was kids, and doesn't recognize Max. Joe explains that Max has recently moved, and Wanda tells Max that over past two weeks, a crime wave has hit Oakdale, with 2 burglaries in the neighborhood. David recommends creating a security system for her, using Wishbone as an alarm, and everyone agrees to the idea. Later that night, Ellen tells Joe that he did a great job being nice to Max. Joe agrees, and tells Ellen about what Max's counselor had told him about his past: Max lives in a group home since his parents were killed in a car accident the previous summer, and thinks that the other kids in the group home are not nice to him. Back in the story, Oliver eventually reaches the big city of London. He roams the streets searching for food and a friend, but almost everyone is hostile. He eventually comes across a poor boy named Jack Dawkins - also called the Artful Dodger - who offers him decent food and a bed, both for free. Oliver accompanies Dodger as they walk down a road. Back in the present, Joe, Wishbone, and Max are all playing basketball when an older teenager named Zach arrives on rollerblades. Wishbone is immediately suspicious of Zach after he gives Max a pair of rollerblades that he doesn't list the source of. Max and Zach ride off on the rollerblades, leaving both Joe and Wishbone suspicious of Zach; Wishbone quips, "That guy is nobody's friend." At David's house, David and Joe work on the security mechanism. Sam arrives in a white dress and gloves with the microphone for the project. Sam explains that she had been ballroom dancing with Nathaniel Bobelesky. With the microphone now added, their project is now complete. David tests out the machine, recording Wishbone's voice and editing it to make it sound more aggressive. While Sam goes home to change into different clothes, Joe, David and Wishbone arrive at Wanda's house. Wanda allows David in, but is disgusted by Wishbone's presence. Joe and Wishbone return to their house, only to find it broken into, burglarized, and trashed. Most of the stuff stolen are video games and CDs, but Joe's father's autographed card is stolen as well. The policeman hired to investigate suspects that kids might have stolen the items, and asks Joe if he knew any kids that were capable of this level of harm, and if any of them knew he and Ellen weren't going to be at home. When Joe says that he was with them, Wishbone realizes that Max wasn't with them all day; Joe then realizes it as well and tells Ellen. He also tells her about Zach and how he acted like a gangster, and that he will look for Max to talk to him. Back in the story, Oliver, Dodger, and Charlie Bates - a friend of Dodger's - spy on an old man at a bookstore and proceed to pickpocket him. Right as they do this, the man turns around to see Oliver, who had followed them. He runs off, and the man calls him out as a thief; Dodger, who had been watching this, proceeds to betray Oliver and call him out as well. After a short chase, Oliver is caught and taken to trial. When he is identified by the old man who was pickpocketed, the magistrate declares him guilty and sentences him to 3 months of hard labor. The bookseller then steps up and tells the court that he saw the crime committed not by Oliver, but by Dodger. The magistrate lifts the sentence, and the old man apologizes to Oliver and introduces himself as Mr. Brownlow. He then decides to adopt Oliver, to which he agrees. Back in the present, Wishbone looks at the clock and notices it's 3:00, and awaits snacks. Joe arrives home and tells Ellen that Max wasn't at school or the group home. Suddenly, the alarm that David installed in Wanda's house is triggered, alerting Joe and Wishbone, who run to the house. The criminal is revealed to be Zach, and Max tries to stop him, only to be knocked down by a fleeing Zach. As Max tries to run after him, he is stopped by Joe. Wishbone pursues Zach as he tries to escape by motorcycle, and steals his license plate. Max tells Joe, David, and Sam that he and Zach had an argument about whether to return Joe's stuff or not, resulting is Zach giving Max a black eye and performing the heist on Wanda's house alone. As Wishbone arrives with the license plate in his mouth, Max reveals where Zach's hideout is, and David comes up with an idea. As everyone arrives at Zach's hideout - an abandoned warehouse - David puts a camera helmet on Wishbone, and Joe wears a helmet that recieves the video footage. Wishbone enters the warehouse through the window and notices Zach watching TV. He turns around and notices Wishbone looking at him. While Sam calls 911, Wishbone escapes Zach's malicious pursuit. The cops arrive and kick down the door, and Wishbone drags Wanda's stolen flamingo out of the building while Zach is arrested. At Joe's house, the stolen items are back in their proper place. With everything back to normal, Ellen prepares to make food. Back in the story, Mr. Brownlow and Oliver are seated at a grand dining hall, and Mr. Brownlow tells Oliver that he can eat to his heart's content. Back in the present, Joe calls Wishbone over for some food, and Wishbone - who had been trying to obtain food throughout the whole episode - runs to Joe so that he can eat. Cast 'Oakdale' Soccer the dog as Wishbone * Larry Brantley as the voice of Wishbone Jordan Wall as Joe Talbot Christie Abbott as Sam Kepler Adam Springfield as David Barnes Mary Chris Wall as Ellen Talbot Angee Hughes as Wanda Gilmore Marshall Ziemanski as Max Michael Edmondson as Zach Marc Taylor as Policeman 1 'Oliver Twist' Soccer the dog as Oliver Twist * Larry Brantley as the voice of Oliver Twist Joe Duffield as Artful Dodger Matt Zeske as Charlie Bates Bill Guthrie as Mr. Brownlow Bob Eric Hart as Magistrate Sonny Franks as Bookseller Todd Connor as Policeman 2 Lynn Guthrie as Fat Master Transcript Twisted Tail/Transcript Tail-Ends Wishbone talks about the visual effects used for this episode. When the crew was finished creating the set pieces for London, they noticed that London's skyline looked similar to their backlot. To make it look more like London, they used CGI. Trivia * The license number on Zach's motorcycle reads "4498E". * The Oakdale Police Department car used in this episode is a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. * This version only tells the first half of the actual story. The second half is much more brutal and violent, and would be too scarring for children, so they decided to leave it at Oliver living with Mr. Brownlow. * The CGI-ed flyover reveals the scene where Oliver meets Dodger to be across the River Thames from Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. This would put the exact location in Lambeth, South London. ** In the book, the actual location where Oliver meets Dodger is in Barnet, which is further north. Category:Episodes Category:Season 1 episodes